Optical device

ABSTRACT

DISCLOSED IN A METHOD FOR MAKING AN OPTICAL DEVICE OR ELECTRO-CHEMICAL STORAGE WHEREIN A PAIR OF ELECTRON CONDUCTOR ELECTRODES ARE SEPARATED BY A SOLID STATE ELECTROLYTIC LAYER CONTAINING IONS AVAILABLE FOR REVERSIBLE OXI-   DATION AND REDUCTION REACTIONS IN RESPONSE TO AN ELECTRICAL POTENTIAL APPLIED ACROSS THE ELECTRODES.

July 10, 1973 E. c. LETTER Y OPTICAL DEVICE Original Filed Feb. u, 1966 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 lr @mlm E. C. LETTER OPTICAL DEVICE @www July 10,1973

2 Sheets-Sheet 2 Original Filed Feb. L, 1966 FIG. if

'United' States Patent Int. Cl. Hb 3/00; @23h 5/50 US. Cl. 117-211 3 Claims ABSTRACT F THE DISCLGSURE Disclosed in a method for making an optical device or electro-chemical storage cell wherein a pair of electron conductor electrodes are separated by a solid state electrolytic layer containing ions available for reversible oxidation and reduction reactions in response to an electrical potential applied across the electrodes.

This is a division of application Ser. No. 525,620, led Feb. '7, 1966, and a further division of application Ser. No. 861,969, tiled Sept. 29, 1969 now Patent No. 3,6201,- 866. This invention relates to a novel optical device and more particularly to a method for making such an optical device having electrically responsive variable optical properties.

In various optical systems, the intensity, wavelength, etc., of radiation received by an element is controlled in a predetermined manner to produce a desired effect. At the present, this is generally mechanically accomplished by the use of lters, optical wedges, occluders, adjustable slits and apertures, etc., or electrically accomplished by the use of electrically responsive devices such as Kerr cells, etc. The mechanical devices generally require a physical movement to exert the required amount of control. In the case of automated systems, these mechanical devices are motor driven in response to an electrical control signal. The motor, the drive coupling, etc., are generally complicated, expensive, and space consuming. A delinite reduction in complexity, cost, and space can be achieved by the use of optical devices adapted to have their optical properties directly controlled with an electrical signal. In addition, by eliminating the inertial time lag included in all mechanical systems, a system including an electrically controlled optical device will have a response time superior to that achieved mechanically. Furthermore, by eliminating such mechanical non-linearities as deadband and friction, the system can also achieve greater accuracy.

Presently available electrically responsive optical devices for directly controlling the intensity, Wavelength, etc., of radiation received by an element such as Kerr cells or Pockel cells require a continuous potential applied thereto to maintain the desired amount of control. In addition, these cells require extremely high potentials for operation thereof. For example, the Kerr cell requires a potential in the order of 40,000 volts while a device using Pockels effect requires a potential in the order of '7,000 volts. Furthermore, the Kerr and Pockel cells produce a polarizing eiect and therefore are required to be used in conjunction with polarized light to be eifective.

It is therefore an object of this invention to provide a new and improved optical device.

It is also an object of this invention to provide a new and improved optical device adapted to have its optical properties electrically controlled.

It is also an object of this invention to provide a new and improved optical device adapted to have its optical properties controlled by the application of a low voltage.

3,745,044 Patented July lli), i973 ice It is also an object of this invention to provide a new and improved optical device adapted to have its optical density changed by applying an electrical potential thereto which retains the optical density substantially as changed when the electrical potential is removed.

It is still a further object of this invention to provide a new and improved solid state device Whose optical properties are bidirectionally controlled as a function of electrical energy applied thereto.

The optical device according to the present invention comprises a pair of electronic conductive electrodes separated by a solid state electrolytic reactive nlm containing ions which are available for reducing and oxidizing reactions. In response to au electrical potential applied across the conductive electrode, a current conduction is initiated by an ionic transport phenomenon resulting in reversible reducing and oxidizing reaction in the reactive lm thereby changing the optical properties of the device.

The novel features which are considered to be characteristics of this invention are set forth with particularity in the appended claims. The invention itself, however, both as to its organization and method of operation as well as additional objects and advantages thereof, will best be understood from the following description when read in connection with the accompanying drawings in which: A

FIG. l is a cross-sectional view of a rst embodiment of an optical device including the invention;

FIG. 2 is a cross-sectional view of a second embodiment of an optical device including the invention',

FIG. 3 is a cross-sectional view of a third embodiment of an optical device including the invention;

FIG. 4 is an illustration of a pair of sunglasses including the optical device of FIG. 2; and

FIG. 5 is a cross-sectional view of the sunglasses ot FIG. 4 taken along the lines 5-5.

While the invention is described with reference to a glass film containing lead and fluoride ions or a crystalline film containing lead and liuoride ions, it is to be understood that it is not intended to limit the invention to these specific compositions. Many and various reactive films which contain ions available for reducing and oxidizing reactions will produce similar results when treated in accordance with the methods disclosed herein.

The optical device shown in FIG. l includes a pair of substrates or bases 10 and 12 for supporting the multilayer lm device. The substrates 10 and 12 may be glass plates or any other suitable transparent material. A pair of electron conducting layers 14 and 16 are disposed between the substrates 10 and 12 respectively and a solid electrolytic reactive layer 18 having ions available for reducing and oxidizing reactions. The electron conducting layers 14 and 16 may, by way of example, be a semiconducting coating of tin oxide, indium oxide, nickel oxide or cadmium fluoride, or a thin coating of metal such as gold, silver, copper, etc., or a combination of such materials. The reactive layer 18 may, for example, comprise a glass composition containing lead iiuoride having lead cations available for reducing and oxidizing reactions and uoride mobile anions such as aPbO CSlOg dB203 having a mole ratio designated as a, b, and c and "d wherein a varies from 1A to 2, b varies from 1A;

to l, c varies from O to 1 and d varies from 0 to 1/2. For example, the glass composition may comprise O1' PbOMPbFZl/ZBQOQ, O1' PbolPbFgl/ZSOZI/lBgOg. These glass compositions have reducible and oxidizable lead cations and mobile conducting fluoride anions available for entering into reducing and oxidizing reactions.

An example of other material having ions available for reducing and oxidizing reactions are compositions including bismuth fluoride or lanthanum fluoride doped with strontium and cerium.

The optical device described above may be produced by initially placing the substrates and 12 in a vacuum chamber at a suitable reduced pressure and conventionally depositing a coating of tin oxide by a sputtering process described in United States Patent No. 3,139,396 granted to W. R. Sinclair on June 30, 1964. Alternatively, commercially available electrically conducting glass having a thin coating of tin oxide and a softening point in the order of 700 C. or greater can be used. The resistance of the tin oxide coating should preferably be in the order of 50-10,000 ohms per square. Selected sizes of conventionally cleaned electrically conducting glass are placed into a furnace and heated to a temperature in the order of 600 C. 'Ihe size and the coeicient of expansion of the substrate material used dictates the rapidity at which the substrates are brought up to the temperature. For example, thick substrates or substrates with high coeicients of expansion should be exposed to the raised temperature more gradually than thinner substrates or substrates having lower coefficients of expansion. With substrates one inch in diameter, a glass bead of a composition containing lead fluoride, as previously mentioned, having a diameter in the order of H; of an inch is placed on one of the tin oxide surfaces of the substrates to form the reactive layer 18. The bead fuses at this temperature and slowly spreads over the substrate. When the bead has spread to a diameter of approximately '1A of an inch, the other preheated tin oxide surface of the second substrate is placed on the lead iluoride composition and the substrates are rmly pressed together.

The multilayer device is now removed from the furnace and placed upon a plate preheated to a temperature of approximately 200 C. for cooling to produce an amorphous reactive layer. The optical device may be operated at this temperature. If desired to operate the optical device at room temperature the device should be cooled rapidly which, by Way of example, may include placing the external substrate surfaces between a pair of room temperature surfaces so that both substrates cool at approximately the same rate. 'Ihe optical device is cooled rapidly to room temperature in this manner to insure increased ionic conduction in the reactive layer 18.

When a voltage, supplied by a source of potential illustrated as the battery 20, is applied across the two electron conducting layers 14 and 16 by closing a switch 22, an ionic current iiows through the reactive layer 1 8 changing the optical properties of the device, such as the effective refractive index, the optical density, etc. The rate at which the optical properties of the device change is a function of the magnitude of the potential placed across the electron conducting layers and the temperature of the device. For example, a 2:1 change in optical density has been observed in one second for a potential in the order of 2.5-5 volts at 200 C. whereas the same change in optical density at room temperature will require a longer period of time. However, even at room temperature small changes have been observed with current pulses less than 1 millisecond in duration.

The change in optical properties in response to the applied electrical potential can be effectively considered to be a result of the formation of reduced lead (PbO) forming in the reactive layer 18 adjacent to the negative electrode 16. Ionic conduction in the reactive layer 18 can result when the electrons stored on the electrode 16 repel rtluoride ions (mobile anions) into openings in the amorphous structure of the reactive layer 18 resulting in an ionic conduction away from the electrode 16. Electrons from the tin oxide layer 16 combine With the divalent lead ions to produce reduced lead changing the optical properties of the device, such as increasing its optical density. Electrons dow from the electrode 16 back to the source by changing divalent lead to tetra-valent lead as the iluoride ions move towards the electrode 14 thereby completing the ionic conduction through the reactive layer 18.

The optical properties of the device will remain substantially as changed when the potential is removed by opening the switch 22. If the optical properties of the device are to be reversed back to approximately their original condition, the electrodes 14 and 16 can be shorted together by closing the switch 24. The optical properties can be more rapidly reversed by applying an opposite potential (opposite that supplied by the battery 2.01), in the order of one volt, supplied by a source of potential, illustrated as the battery 26, by closing the switch 28.

`It should be noted that the optical device of FIG. 1 also effectively functions as an electro-chemical storage cell. After the switch 22 has been closed and subsequently opened, a charge is stored between the electrodes 14 and 16. A current flow results when the switch 24 is closed due to the stored charge.

The optical device in FIG. 2 includes a single glass substrate 30 upon which an electron conducting iilm 32 is disposed. A reactive layer 34 containing ions available for reducing and oxidizing reactions is formed on the electron conducting layer 32. A second electron conducting layer 36 is formed on top of the active layer 34. By placing a potential across the electron conducting layers 32 and '36, the optical properties of the layer 34 are changed and reversed back to substantially their original optical condition in the same manner as previously described with regard to FIG. l.

The optical device of FIG. 2 can be made by conventional evaporation techniques. For example, the substrate 30 containing a tin oxide electron conducting layer 32 o f the type previously described with regards to FIG. 1, 1S put into a vacuum chamber having a clean vacuum of at least 10-4 torr. Care should be taken to eliminate organic and other types of contamination that may produce excessive reduction. A crystalline reactive layer 34 of lead iluoride containing impurities such as oxygen, bismuth or silver is now conventionally deposited from a platinum boat by vacuum techniques on the tin oxide layer 32. It is desirable to maintain the substrate at room temperature or below if a high degree of ionic conduction is desired. The electron conducting layer 36 is now conventionally evaporated in the form of silver or gold or as tin oxide with sputtering techniques. The thickness of the layer 36 should be in the order of 10 quarter wavelengths for light of 435 millimicrons.

The reactive layer 34 can also be made of the abovementioned glass compositions with regards to the reactive layer 18 of FIG. 1, by conventional flash evaporation techniques. By ash evaporation techniques I mean placing the substrate 30 having the tin oxide layer 32 into a vacuum chamber, preheating a boat, such as a platinum boat, to a temperature in the order of 1600* C. and dropping pellets of material on the boat so that the pellets are immediately, or ash heated, and thereby evaporation deposited on the tin oxide layer 32.

The optical device of FIGS. l and 2 can be modied to include, a P-N type junction between one of the electron conducting layers and the reactive layer. The heater and cooling procedures used to make certain of the abovementioned glass compositions determines whether the glass is primarily an electron conductor or an ionic conductor. For example, if the above compositions mentioned with regards to the reactive layer 18 of FIG. 1 are cooled rapidly, they tend to exhibit ionic conduction type characteristics. On the other hand if they are cooled slowly they tend to exhibit N type semiconductor conduction characteristics. By substituting a P type material such as nickel oxide for the layers 16 and 36 of FIGS. 1 and 2 respectively, and using a glass composition such as or the glass compositions specied with regards to the reactive layers 18 and 34 of FIGS. 1 and 2 respectively,

a P-N type junction is formed between the layers 16 and 18 and the layers 34 and 36. By connecting the negative terminal of a source of potential to the P type layer (layers 16 and 36) and the positive terminal to the other layers (14 and 32), the P-N junction is reversed biased creating a barrier and effectively eliminating electronic conduction at the reactive layer (layers 18 and 34). An ionic current conduction occurs resulting in the reducing and oxidizingr reactions thereby changing the optical properties of the device.

FIG. 3 is an embodiment of an optical device including the invention wherein a plurality of layers are consecutively stacked to produce a device having a plurality of individually electrically responsive variable optical density layers that are electrically controlled to cooperate to control the overall optical density of the device. The device includes a single glass substrate dll having a tin oxide electron conducting layer 42 of the type previously described with regards to FIGS. l and 2. A reactive layer 44 containing ions available for reducing and oxidizing reactions is disposed between the electron conducting layer 42 and a second electron conducting layer 46. A second similar reactive layer d3 is disposed between the electron conducting layer 46 and a third electron conducting layer 5G. A third similar reactive layer 52 is disposed between the electron conducting layer 50 and a fourth electron conducting layer S4. Although the device is illustrated with three reactive layers 44, 48 and 52, it is to be understood that any number of such layers can be included disposed between pairs of electron conducting layers. The device of FIG. 3 may be made by repeating the process of evaporating consecutive reactive and electron conducting layers in the same manner as set forth with regards to FTG. 2.

The optical properties of the device of FIG. 3 are adapted to be changed by applying a potential between the electrodes d2 and 46, 46 and 5l), and 50 and 54! Iby closing the switches 56, 58 and 6d respectively. The switches can be closed simultaneously or individually to provide the desired amount of change in optical properties at a desired rate. The optical properties of the device of FIG. 3 can be reversed back to approximately their original optical properties by placing a short across the pairs of electrodes or a reverse polarity as previously described with regards to FIG. l.

The pair of sunglasses 70 illustrated in FIGS. 4 and 5 includes the optical device of FIG. 2 as the lenses 72 and 7d to provide a pair of electrically variable density sunglasses. For convenience of illustration the same reference numerals are used to designate the same layers of the optical device of FIG. 2 and the lenses 72 and 74S. It is to be understood, however, that any of the devices of FIGS. 1 and 3 can also be employed as the lenses 72 and 74. A pair of push buttons 76 and 78 yand a miniature battery 80 are enclosed within a temple 82 and are connected through the wires 34 and 36 (partially enclosed within the frame of the sunglasses) to the lenses 72 and 74 to control the optical density thereof. The push button 78 is connected in the similar manner as the switch 22 of FIG. l to provide an electrical potential across the electron conducting layers 32 and 36 of the lenses 72 and 74 (as illustrated in the cross-sectional view of FIG. 5). The push button 76 is connected in a similar manner as the switch 24 of FIG. 1 to discharge any charge stored between the electron conducting layers 32 and 36.

The optical properties of the lenses 72 and 74 change in response to the push buttons 76 and 78 in the same manner as set forth with regard to the switches 24 and 22 respectively. For example, if darker sunglasses are desired, the person Wearing the sunglasses need only depress the switch 78 for a sucient time duration to provide the desired optical density. On the other hand, if lighter sunglasses are desired the push button 76 is depressed.

Although a. single control means has been shown for simultaneously controlling the optical properties of both lenses 72 and 7d, it is to be understood that a separate `control may lbe provided in each sunglass temple for the individually controlling the optical density of the lenses 72 and 74.

I claim:

1. The method of making an electro-chemical storage cell comprising, coating a transparent substrate with a first electron conducting lm, evaporating on said rst film an ionic conducting electrolyte having reducible and oxidizable lead cations and mobile conducting fluoride anions, evaporating on said ionic conducting electrolyte a second electron conducting film.

2. The method of making an electro-mechanical storage cell as set forth in claim l wherein the electrolyte is selected from the group consisting of conducting lm is nickel oxide and P-N type junction is formed between the electrolyte and the second electron conducting iihn.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 3,010,850 11/1961 Colbert 117-211 3,05 0,420 8/ 1962 Wasserman 117-2l5 3,115,415 12/ 1963 Hoffman 10G-49 3,656,984 4/ 1972 Hoffman 106-49 ALFRED L. LEAVITI, Primary Examiner M. F. ESPOSITO, Assistant Examiner U.S. Cl. XR. 117-215, 217 

